Luxembourg. Following the formal sitting of the Court of Justice of the European Communities held yesterday for the partial renewal of its Members, (1) the Judges of the Court, in the exercise of the powers conferred on them by the Treaties and in accordance with the Rules of Procedure, met today to elect from among their number the President of the Court of Justice, who will hold office for a period of three years.
In a secret ballot, the Judges of the Court decided to renew the mandate of the present President, Gil Carlos Rodríguez Iglesias, until 6 October 2000.
Gil Carlos Rodríguez Iglesias was born in Gijón (Spain) in 1946. He embarked on a long teaching career in several universities in Spain and elsewhere in Europe (University of Oviedo, University of Freiburg in Breisgau, Universidad Autónoma and Universidad Complutense, Madrid) and gained a Doctorate in Laws at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (1975). He was appointed Professor of Public International Law at the University of Extremadura (1982) and the University of Granada (1983), which posts he held until in 1986, when Spain acceded to the European Communities, he was appointed a Judge of the Court of Justice of the European Communities. He was made Doctor Honoris Causa of the University of Turin (Italy) in April 1996, of the University of Cluj-Napoca (Rumania) in June 1996 and of the University of the Sarre (Federal Republic of Germany) in July 1997.
He was first elected President of the Court of Justice on 7 October 1994.
As provided for in the Treaties, the Statute of the Court of Justice and its Rules of Procedure, the President of the Court of Justice of the European Communities directs the departments of the Court; he presides at hearings and deliberations of the Court in Plenary Session. It is also his responsibility to assign cases to the Chambers and to appoint the Judge-Rapporteurs.
In special proceedings (for example, applications for suspension of the operation of measures adopted by a Community institution), the President is vested with a number of specific powers, including notably that of determining such applications by means of a reasoned order against which no appeal may be brought.
Within the Court, he is responsible, with the assistance of the Registrar, for the administration of the Court of Justice.
The case-law of the Court of Justice over the last three years has included a number of important judgments which have developed and interpreted in an innovative manner basic principles of Community law, such as the free movement of persons, as applied to professional sportsmen (the Bosman case), the right of citizens of the European Union to obtain compensation for harm caused to them as a result of infringements of Community law committed by Member States (the Brasserie du Pêcheur and Factortame cases) and the right of citizens to secure access to documents of the Community institutions (the case of John Carvel and the Guardian). (2)
Within the institution, the Court of Justice has coped with a constant increase in its workload and ever more complex organizational problems deriving, inter alia, from the accession to the European Union in January 1995 of three new Member States.
For further information, please contact Mr Tom Kennedy, telephone 00352 4303 3355 or send a fax to 00352 4303 2500.
(1) See Press Release No 63/97 of 6 October 1997, which is available on the Internet (http://europa.eu.int/cj/index.htm).
(2) Case C-415/93 Bosman [1995] ECR I-4921; Joined Cases C-46/93 and C-48/93 Brasserie du Pêcheur and Factortame [1996] ECR I-1029; and Case T-194/94 John Carvel and Guardian Newspapers [1995] ECR II-2765.